Secret Santas pay for layaway gifts

[legalskier]

Here's a nice story for this time of year. It seems to be starting a trend....

Secret ‘Santas’ pay strangers’ layaway balances at 2 area Kmarts
Attention, Kmart shoppers: check your layaway accounts. Santa Claus may have come to town a little early this year. At Kmart stores across the country, St. Nick has more “elves” than he probably realizes. Anonymous donors are paying off the layaway accounts of others, buying the Christmas gifts some families cannot afford in these hardscrabble times, especially when it comes to toys and children’s clothing.
The phenomenon apparently originated earlier this month in Michigan, the home state of the Kmart Corp. Since then, scores of customers have benefited from the kindness of strangers in Indiana, Iowa, Montana and Nebraska. ***
Story: http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/9...angers-layaway-balances-at-2-area-kmarts.html

 

[bvibert]

That's pretty cool!

 

[ski stef]

Yeah I like this idea!

I always pay for the persons toll behind me...and until recently never thought of these negatives.

I don't always know where they are coming from so it could be a different price.

And now that I think about it that could be pretty frustrating if you had exact change and i fudged it up.

 

[soposkier]

Yeah I like this idea!

I always pay for the persons toll behind me...and until recently never thought of these negatives.

I don't always know where they are coming from so it could be a different price.

And now that I think about it that could be pretty frustrating if you had exact change and i fudged it up.

thats if the toll collector isnt just pocketing it....

 

[ski stef]

thats if the toll collector isnt just pocketing it....

Yeah, true. Too much trust sometimes. Well hopefully those .85 and 1.90 are going to good use.

 

[steamboat1]

Another nice story.

Marine Scott Wood died four weeks ago after suffering injuries during combat in Iraq. Before his burial, his wife dressed him in two uniforms. On the outside, Scott wore his military dress blues. Underneath, he wore the blue No. 80 jersey of Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson.

Sara Wood had been married to Scott for eight years. They have a five-year-old son together named Landon. Now he and Sara live in a single room in her parent's house.

"He knows daddy's in heaven," Sara said of Landon, "though I don't know if he fully comprehends what that means. He knows daddy's not coming back."

When Sara got an offer to go watch the Houston Texans play the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, she jumped at the opportunity. She knew her husband would have loved to go the Reliant Stadium to watch his beloved team play. Plus, she and Landon had never been to a game before.

As described in a column by Tully Corcoran on FSHouston.com, the team brought Sara to the game under the pretense that she and her son would be part of a halftime ceremony in which Landon would receive a bike and Scott's memory would be celebrated by the 71,500 in attendance. Both those things happened, but a much bigger surprise awaited.

The team told Sara she and Landon would be receiving a custom-built, mortgage-free house in a Houston suburb. It's courtesy Operation Finally Home, an organization that builds houses for wounded and disabled veterans or their widowed families. In its seven years of existence, the charity has built 32 homes in 32 states, all mortgage free.

This home will allow the Wood family to stay close to family but have a place of their own. The hope is that she and Landon will move in next May. Scott won't be there, but that doesn't mean Landon won't talk to him.

"We told him he could talk to daddy in his prayers," she said, "and even in the middle of the day, you'll see him walk around the corner and you'll hear him say the 'now I lay me down to sleep prayer,' which Scott taught him. And then he starts talking to daddy."

 

[billski]

congrats to Operation Finally Home. A gift never to be forgotten!

 

[drjeff]

Marine Scott Wood died four weeks ago after suffering injuries during combat in Iraq. Before his burial, his wife dressed him in two uniforms. On the outside, Scott wore his military dress blues. Underneath, he wore the blue No. 80 jersey of Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson.

Sara Wood had been married to Scott for eight years. They have a five-year-old son together named Landon. Now he and Sara live in a single room in her parent's house.

"He knows daddy's in heaven," Sara said of Landon, "though I don't know if he fully comprehends what that means. He knows daddy's not coming back."

When Sara got an offer to go watch the Houston Texans play the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, she jumped at the opportunity. She knew her husband would have loved to go the Reliant Stadium to watch his beloved team play. Plus, she and Landon had never been to a game before.

As described in a column by Tully Corcoran on FSHouston.com, the team brought Sara to the game under the pretense that she and her son would be part of a halftime ceremony in which Landon would receive a bike and Scott's memory would be celebrated by the 71,500 in attendance. Both those things happened, but a much bigger surprise awaited.

The team told Sara she and Landon would be receiving a custom-built, mortgage-free house in a Houston suburb. It's courtesy Operation Finally Home, an organization that builds houses for wounded and disabled veterans or their widowed families. In its seven years of existence, the charity has built 32 homes in 32 states, all mortgage free.

This home will allow the Wood family to stay close to family but have a place of their own. The hope is that she and Landon will move in next May. Scott won't be there, but that doesn't mean Landon won't talk to him.

"We told him he could talk to daddy in his prayers," she said, "and even in the middle of the day, you'll see him walk around the corner and you'll hear him say the 'now I lay me down to sleep prayer,' which Scott taught him. And then he starts talking to daddy."

Great organization, as is others such as the Wounded Warrior Project for all they do for our soldiers and their familes! :flag:

This is a topic where I actually STRONGLY agreed with Donald Trump on recently. Not to debate the politics of the wars over the last decade or so, but Trump's idea was that for countries like Libya or Iraq where our soldiers help free the citizens of those countries from oppressive regimes, that we, the United States, should demand some of the profits from the oil that those countries sell, and then say use that money to pay the family of any soldier killed say 5 million dollars and any soldier wounded and facing years of rehabilitation and medical bills say 3 million. Seemed like a reasonable idea to me to ensure that our brave soldiers and their families that are either wounded or killed in action are taken care of properly